Citywire: The WealthTech Show

In the last ever episode of the Wealthtech Show, we bring you some highlights from our favourite 2022 episodes. In this clip you hear Yaela Shamberg talk about how her and her team at InvestCloud tried to buy the domain name ‘iCloud’ from a stubborn anonymous owner.

Listen to the episode to hear Ian interview a plethora of guests – from Matt Hancock to Jamie Bartlett, Myron Jobson to Mary Agbesanwa.

For those without huge backing or a long-established entrepreneurial brand, breaking into the wealthtech market is a monumental task. In this week's episode, we speak to Anton Padmasiri and Shri Krishansen of WealthOS, who are trying to do just that.

There are many obstacles to overcome for wealthtech startups. Funding, networking, marketing and product development all need to be on point, and even then there are few guarantees. Anton and Shri talk us through it, while also highlighting why it's so important that we listen to new perspectives as we seek to improve the way we invest and manage our finances.

Terrie Smith, who led the development of the technology behind Google Pay and Apple Pay, joins us to discuss the evolution of wearable payments. Terrie believes that, in time, most of us will ditch our bank cards in favour of using digitally enabled jewellery, keyrings, or clothing.

Terrie also discusses developments in verification technology, which will play a key role in paytech evolution. She outlines how this technology helps to verify the provenance of luxury items and explains how it is been used for the Golden Globe Awards.

Several pension schemes have expressed dismay at the 2024 launch date for the pensions dashboard, but why? In this episode, Jonathan Hawkins from Bravura explains that schemes have no excuses for not having their data ready, and also outlines that opacity has been in the best interests of those offering little value to customers.

We also look at the good that dashboards can bring. Like never before, UK pension holders will be able to see what's really going on with their investments, and they'll be able to access it easily and in an understandable manner. While this means that some will learn that they've been ripped off, it also means that we are moving into an era of better pension schemes, and greater transparency for those who need it most.

It's been a testing year for tech investors. To give this comment some context, take note that the Nasdaq 100 is down almost 20% this year, due largely to the slashed valuations in big tech. Tech start-ups are not immune from the downturn either, with closer scrutiny being applied to business models and balance sheets.

Dan Kemp, global CIO at Morningstar Investment Management, joins The Wealthtech Show this week to help us make sense of it all. Will the downturn be here for long? Do investors need to take action? Are we really in a recession? And which tech companies will survive, or even thrive, in the next few years?

Fintech is changing the way we engage with money. For those of us in financial services, it's also changing our careers. In this week's WealthTech Show, Mary Agbesanwa, fintech growth lead at Seccl and founder of the 'Now You're Talking' networking group, discusses the impact of embedded finance and the democratisation of finance - trends that will overhaul parts of our sector.

We also discuss opportunities for ambitious millennials in fintech. Mary explains that this market puts people at the frontier of innovation, allowing them to play a key role in building the next generation of financial products and tools.

It would not be hyperbole to describe the OneCoin scam as a 'once in a lifetime' story for a journalist. When Jamie Bartlett started his investigation of it, he began a journey that would lead to the uncovering of a $4 billion Ponzi scheme, a hit BBC podcast, and the titular Missing Cryptoqueen, Dr. Ruja Ignatova, appearing on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. 

 

In this episode of The Wealthtech Show, Jamie explains what's happened since the last episode of the podcast series while offering his thoughts on where Dr. Ruja might be hiding out. We also take some time to discuss his work on the dark web, and why crypto is unlikely to be the savvy criminal's currency of choice in 2022.

It really is as simple as that. In this episode intelliflo CEO Nick Eatock explains why tech savvy financial advisers outperform their peers by a country mile. Using intelliflo’s eAdviser Index, he makes it clear that great use of tech equals more clients, more revenue, and more profit.

Eatock speaks from experience and knowledge. Having founded intelliflo 17 years ago, he’s grown the busines into a market leader. With great power comes great responsibility though – accordingly, he addresses the intellfilo outages from earlier in the year, offering context on the problems that unfolded.

Ever seen those laughable job ads that offer entry-level salaries in return for a minimum of five years’ experience? Well, the fintech industry isn’t quite so bad, but there is a bottleneck of talent. It’s caused in part by employers focusing on the most qualified, and by high barriers to entry for new starters.

Nadia Edwards-Dashti, chief customer officer at Harrington Starr, explains why recruiters can help themselves and the industry by focusing on potential. She also discusses her book, FinTech Women Walk the Talk, which shares inspirational stories of industry leaders while outlining the distance yet to be travelled before gender parity is reached.

Asset managers oversee more than $100 trillion globally, but is the technology behind their propositions fit for purpose? Lorelei Skillman, chief communications officer for investment management platform Enfusion, flies in from New York to share her thoughts.

You would expect an industry that manages trillions to be at the cutting edge but that is often not the case. Legacy technology persists and many fund managers aren’t able to track their investments in real-time. Is it time for investors to start asking serious questions about the tech being used by asset managers?